Today my washing machine is starting to act up. It appears that it spins too slow. If I move it back and forth by hand it feels tight but after a couple of back and forth turns, it frees up a bit, but not for long. I had reports of a burning type smell, but I did not smell this myself.

My conclusion is that the clutch is shot and binding. What I'm looking for is a confirmation that this is the likely culprit for this type of problem.

Nothing found in between the tubs but a heavy build up of lint type debris between the vertical center sections of both tubs. Removal may or may not help, the spin clutch seems OK, I can see it working and there is still material on the clutch.

Since I didn't actually see this problem happen, burning smell and all, I'm thinking that the tub was overloaded and just took a long time to spin up to speed.